Torchwood Miracle Day: The Middle Men

I know I’ve missed out the last couple of episodes, but my Torchwood reviews are now back.

Last week’s Torchwood, in which my favourite character was burnt to ‘death’, Rex went undercover and Esther (my second favourite character) officially gained the title ‘Useless’, was the most Torchwood-y episode yet. It had Torchwood sounding music, a proper Torchwood plot, and went through the whole evil of humanity thing they did in Children of Earth. Last week’s episode was the best yet.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

The Middle Men returns to the style of the opening episodes. American Crime Drama. The bits with the meeting of the leader of PhiCorp (basically telling us the series has been a load of useless leads until now) and the bits with Janet (not the Weevil) are typical of the whole American Crime Drama, but less exciting than they normally would be.

Rex’s investigation is going a bit slower in this episode, and spends most of it complaining about his injuries (and he’s never done that before). He also meets Mr Colin Maloney, who is played absolutely fantastically, and I don’t think there’s one viewer of Torchwood who doesn’t hate him. Rex and Colin have a conversation, Rex keen to get Colin on his side, but then he makes the mistake of showing Colin what he’s done. Rex then realises Colin is behind it, and Colin uses a biro pen as a weapon. But warning – it’s gruesome. And left me feeling a bit sick after watching it.

Esther spends most of the episode in her office, being told she can’t go out of her office. She does anyway, of course, and fights Mr Maloney. And it’s an awesome fight scene. I think Esther has lost the ‘Useless’ part of her name. Then she sits in a car crying and the useless part kind of creeps back in. Esther does kill Colin. Kind of. A bit.

As for Gwen, the bits with her in are quite boring. While she gives her best performance yet (cos it’s not seriously overacted), the whole thing with her trying to save her dad is a bit… slow, compared to other events of the episode. And we find out it’s all been for nothing anyhow.

SPOILERS END

This episode isn’t the best one, and it’s certainly not the worst one. That would probably have to be episode 1. This episode does provide quite a big resolution, but then that resolution shows us that episodes 5 and 6 have been nothing more than a distraction. We’re still waiting for a big twist or shock – and while there are twists and shocks and have been twists and shocks, there haven’t been any big ones yet.

Enjoy the episode, because it’s worth seeing what happens to Colin and his security guard, it’s worth watching Esther and Rex get along better, and it’s worth watching Jack make another gay joke (cos frankly, the only thing he finds out in this episode is that there’s two rather important words. And one of those is ‘The’.). The episode is good, but not the best. It ties up a few loose ends, has some awesome explosions and lines – but WHEN DO WE FIND OUT WHAT THE GREEN TRIANGLE IS!

My Next Review will be “The King’s Demons”